Foul language and inappropriate themes on Britain’s Got Talent and other pre-watershed programmes are robbing children of their innocence, headteachers have warned.
Adult issues including prostitution, rape, alcoholism and murder are now commonplace on screens before 9pm. This is having a ‘detrimental effect’ on children, according to a motion passed overwhelmingly at the National Association of Headteachers conference in Birmingham.
Britain’s Got Talent, which featured 71-year-old pensioner Kelly Fox earlier this month singing a song shortly after 8pm called ‘Kiss My Ass’, was singled out for criticism. Music mogul Simon Cowell also kissed the bottom of fellow judge Amanda Holden.
Amanda Hulme, the head of Claypool Primary School in Bolton, told delegates children are being forced to grow up too quickly.
‘Completely inappropriate’ material that no person ‘with an ounce of morality’ would want their child to see were being shown too early.
Speaking about the 'Kiss My Ass' incident, she said:
The producers of Britain’s Got Talent obviously think it’s okay. They made a conscious decision to air that performance before the watershed last Saturday,’ she said.
The programme had already been criticised recently for featuring a lap dancer and an 11-year-old singing a sexually charged song called One Night Only, both seen by 13 million people before the watershed.
Popular soaps were also a bad influence, Mrs Hulme said, with Emmerdale character Cain Dingle using bad language in an episode broadcast at 7.20pm. Referring to a recent Netmums survey which found parents believe childhood now ends at age 12, she added:
‘It’s even lower than that for some children. The toxic combination of sophisticated marketing, the media ratings war and added peer pressure linked to social media, means that not only are children being put under pressure to conform to idealistic nonsense but they are also being subjected to adult themes at a much younger age.’
She described having to speak to 11-year-olds about making crude language in the playground.
‘What does seem to be new is the freedom that the media have to introduce themes to our children that are completely inappropriate - rape, murder, domestic abuse, child abuse, self-harming, bulimia, alcoholism, prostitution, drug abuse - all on television in the last 12 months and all before the watershed,’ Mrs Hulme warned.
Surely an easy way to judge if a theme is appropriate would be to ask the question “Is this something I would like my child to know about?”’ Another headteacher described how children as young as eight are putting themselves at risk by setting up Facebook pages.
Stephen Watkins, head of Mill Field Primary School in Leeds, revealed more than two-thirds of 11-year-olds at his school had set up accounts on the social networking site - despite under-13s supposedly being banned. Many were placing sensitive details online, including their names and addresses - which could be seen by predatory paedophiles.
Others are being subjected to cyber-bullying, leaving them suicidal or with eating disorders, he said in a briefing prior to the conference in Birmingham.
‘We had a purge just before Christmas when we wrote to the parents telling them their children were not old enough,’ said Mr Watkins.
‘We told them “Do something or we will”. Then, a couple of months later, we found they had set up new accounts under a different name.’ Facebook did remove under-age accounts when alerted to them, he said, ‘but they don’t make it difficult to set them up’.
Mr Hobby confirmed the problem was ‘rife’, saying a ‘majority of schools’ were now having to tackle the problem.
A Facebook spokesman said:
‘Ultimately, we believe that communication between parents and young people about their use of the internet is vital.’
Posts
